Welcome to the Application Wizard for the Teacher of the Year Award. This wizard
will guide you through the application process. Please read the following
requirements and gather all your materials before proceeding.
All applicants must adhere to the following requirements in order to be considered for the TOTY:
- Minimum of 3 years full-time U.S. teaching experience at any K-12 level.
- Teaching at least one unit per year on natural resources. Natural resources are defined as earth materials used by civilizations past and present such as:
- Organic materials such as petroleum, natural gas, coal and oil shale.
- Inorganic substances found in the Earth such as mineral ores, building stone and aggregate.
- Energy resources from the Earth such as geothermal energy.
- Teaching should include the scientific study of these resources, their origin, discovery, extraction, and historic and present use. It should also include the preservation of the environment, reclamation, the conservation of resources, and the use of earth science knowledge in decision-making.
- The unit will be evaluated on depth and breadth of concepts (resource origin, discovery, processing, usage, and reclamation), creativity of presentation and balanced treatment of information regarding societal need and environmental issues. Please include the length of the unit.
You will need four documents to complete this application. They will be accepted
as word-processing documents or PDFs. The file name will have the extension .txt, .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
- Your teaching philosophy and methods of the teaching of natural resources (both
content and pedagogy). (1-2 pages)
- Description of the unit you teach. (1-2 pages)
- Letter(s) of recommendation from a colleague and/or administrator (one from each
If you have read all the requirements and have gathered the above materials, you are ready to click the “Begin” link below and right.